1. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like dome: The arrival of Siemens' exiderdome in Chicago this week for its year-long U.S. tour was greeted with equal parts wonder and confusion. The wonder was found in the large crowds who attended the Siemens’ Automation Summit at Chicago’s Navy Pier and got to see the floating automation exhibit sitting on a barge in Lake Michigan. The confusion came from city officials trying to certify the dome for occupancy. Once that was cleared up, though, exiderdome brought with it great weather and a new concept in bringing product innovation to end users.

 

2. Summit highlights: In his opening remarks at Wednesday’s ...Read More

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1. Is GM dead? GM CEO Rick Wagonner said Tuesday the automaker would cut dividends, jobs, health care bvenefits for retirees and become the world's leader in fuel-efficient cars. It’s about time. Absent a federal energy policy that does more than drill big holes in the ground and absent a global commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, we are stuck with the internal combustion engine for transportation. If so, the least an automaker can do is lead trends, not follow them. GM built massive trucks and SUVs when oil was relatively cheap and now finds lots filled with them. They’re certainly not alone, but GM, the Titanic of the auto industry in terms of size, certainly saw the iceberg coming three years ago. They just cou...Read More

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1. Another aspect of plant safety: The murder of five people at a Kentucky plastics plant this week brings to the front an issue of safety that isn’t talked about enough. We have OSHA rules and regulations about eye safety and arc flash and exposure to chemicals, but we don’t spend nearly enough time on conflict resolution. We have talked about plant security as it relates to terror attacks and espionage, but do little to focus on our own workers in house. As times get tougher, there is going to be more pressure on everyone. How we respond to that pressure, and how we train our workers to respond to that pressure, could help prevent a repeat of this kind of tragedy.

...Read More

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1. Manufacturing for the Future: This is not just a nice slogan. It was the title of the June 3 discussion in downtown Chicago, sponsored by Financial Times and Machines Italia, a part of the Italian Trade Commission. That a storied British business publication and an Italian commerce group would come to the Midwest to discuss global manufacturing ought to tell you something about where we are in the world right now. And where we are, according to the experts, is right where I thought we were -- smack in the middle of an exciting, evolving, maddening and challenging environment.

2. Some general thoughts: From Financial Times manufacturing editor Peter Marsh: &quo...Read More

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1. Jobs data a mixed bag of news: Manufacturing jobs cuts hit 46,000 in April, and while overall U.S. unemployment slipped to 5%, wages fell and fewer people were earning full-time jobs. It’s further indication of the recession taking hold. But the stock market kept climbing over 13,000 in early trading Friday, May 2.

 

2. Not everyone is happy: Certainly not the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a union-supported group. “The economy is top of mind for voters in Indiana, North Carolina, and all over America,” said AAM president Scott Paul...Read More

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1. Hope springs in Ohio: They’re making windows again, in Malta, OH. The Malta Windows plant closed in 2001, but economic development has reopened the facility and 40 employees of the new ABC Manufacturing and Malta Windows and Doors celebrated the reopening this week, the Zanesville Times-Record reported. After receiving a check for $3 million from a local bank, ABC Manufacturing president Wade Benjamin said, "We're going to take the window company back to the national level.”

 2. And this word from Congress: ...Read More

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1: This is officially bad news: We use the ‘R’ word in the March issue of Plant Engineering, and here’s why: Among the manufacturing measures that have held up fairly well in the past two years has been worker productivity. According to this article, productivity dropped in December. Labor costs are now rising faster than productivity, and that trend has to be reversed.

  

2. A tale of two plants in Mississippi: One facility is shutting down, putting 150 workers out of a job. Another is ...Read More

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Before we start, the above headline is the opening line from a song from the 1970s. (I know you're all old enough, so don't be shy about admitting it). The first five people who email me with the song title will receive a free DVD from a recent Plant Engineering Webcast. Your choice of titles and topics, which you can check out here.

1. Coming out of hibernation… It’s been more than three weeks since the last posting. I’ve been on the road a lot, hearing about new technologies and solutions and strategies. There’s a lot of concern in the manufacturing sector, and we need to start using the ‘R’ Word – recession – as a way to understand how bad it is and what we need to do ab...Read More

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1. First, the good news: When the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing benchmark figure plunged in December, it was the first sign that manufacturing was headed for a slowdown. The pessimism has been replaced with modest optimism in January, as ISM's latest report shows an index jump from 47.7 to 50.7. "This represents a return to the recent trend of slow growth in manufacturing, as the PMI has averaged 50.2% for the past six months," said Norbert J. Ore, chaiman of the ISM's Manufacturing Business Survey Committee.
2. Slow growth, as compared to... ExxonMobil's quarterly profit was $11...Read More

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1. Stocks and bonds: The self-fulfilling prophecy of a recession came to pass Monday and Tuesday. We talked about it in general terms enough, and sure enough, Europe and Asia went ka-bloohey Monday while we took the day off, and then Tuesday, the stock market dropped 400 points at the open. And then, as it seems always happens, the stock market righted itself after the Fed cut interest rates and things were back to whatever normal looks like today.
2. Perhaps the key lesson: Can be found on the cover of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
3. The good news: Is that we can now focus on the real issues in America and not the ones made up by self-righteous commentators on cable networks beginning wi...Read More

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1. The end of Western Civilization? Well, just when you thought things couldn’t get any dumber, the Wall Street Journal runs this idiotic piece on Lou Dobbs, the intellectual pornographer masquerading as a newsman. The “source” quoted in the story as supporting Dobbs as a candidate is from Americans for Legal Immigration, which at best is one of dozens of right wing nut farms floating through the political landscape these days. Lou says there’s a good reason he wouldn’t run for president: "I haven't got the personality or nature to be a politician." Which is odd, because he doesn’t have the personality or nature to be a newsman either, yet there h...Read More

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